Mark Rubin has provided some details in regards to the improved sound system in the upcoming multiplatform video game, “Call of Duty: Ghosts.” According to a report by MP1st on July 8, the executive producer at Infinity Ward revealed that the upgraded game engine can render sounds based on the player’s location. As a result, noise from smaller and bigger rooms in a building will be different. Moreover, bullets will produce different sounds based on the type material that was targeted.

That sounds promising, doesn't it? but they do not talk about vertical sound location.

Mark Rubin has provided some details in regards to the improved sound system in the upcoming multiplatform video game, “Call of Duty: Ghosts.” According to a report by MP1st on July 8, the executive producer at Infinity Ward revealed that the upgraded game engine can render sounds based on the player’s location. As a result, noise from smaller and bigger rooms in a building will be different. Moreover, bullets will produce different sounds based on the type material that was targeted.

That sounds promising, doesn't it? but they do not talk about vertical sound location.

Well, technically, vertical is not possible to simulate in the current technology. The DDX might be able to do some sort of vertical simulation but we will see how this turns out.

The material thing has been done before in this gen, there are games where this applies already and is not hard to do IMO.

As far as bigger/smaller room this has been also done (in a scripted way mostly, yes) so I want to see just how much of an improvement there would be (like realistically calculated sound based on room size? That would be a bit taxing, no?)

Does sound promising as far as COD goes, but overall its a question just how much of an improvement it is from the "prerendered" sounds we get now...

To name my current game of choice-The Last of Us, the bullet material thing is in it, the bigger/smaller room thing is as well (to a certain extent)

And I dont really think they can do much about vertical cues in general, we just dont have that technology available yet (lets see how the Dolby X will do, but who knows when it will be supported?)

So IMO Mr. Rubin is just trying to make it sound like its something new, when in theory (in other games...) it might be not, just a COD new thing :)

Still really wondering just how much better will the things sound in next-gen... By the looks of it, it will still be heavily compressed stuff but at least we have dedicated hardware for that...

Mark Rubin has provided some details in regards to the improved sound system in the upcoming multiplatform video game, “Call of Duty: Ghosts.” According to a report by MP1st on July 8, the executive producer at Infinity Ward revealed that the upgraded game engine can render sounds based on the player’s location. As a result, noise from smaller and bigger rooms in a building will be different. Moreover, bullets will produce different sounds based on the type material that was targeted.

That sounds promising, doesn't it? but they do not talk about vertical sound location.

It doesn't because of how much BS they've been spewing since they revealed the game.

First it was that Ghost uses an entirely new engine, turns out it's just an updated rehashed one.

Then they say the engine allows them to simulate AI dynamically, when everything is actually pre-canned (remember the fishes in the underwater trailer?).

Then it was that lighting is also in real-time, which then turns out it isn't.

So much BS in just one day and I can't take the devs seriously anymore. So things like better virtual surround simulation is pretty much just telling everyone to take what they say with a grain of salt. I don't think we'd even remember any of this when the game releases.

I keep my computer room at 69-70 F. Once it gets up to around 74-75 I'm too uncomfortable to stay in there and that's where my headphone kit is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Lust Envy
I need to be at less than 75 degrees farenheit to not wanna throw any headphones off my head. I can't stand heat l, and I get hot easy. My house is basically set to 71-72 at all times.

As far as vertical positional cues... they are non existent in console gaming, so don't try. Certain sound effects in certain games and movies will give the impression they are vertical, but it's all in your head, as you try and process what you see on screen. Games have a horizontal soundstage nowadays.

Things like Dolby Headphone are simulating speakers in a room. And speakers in a room will be to the front and behind you, not above or below.

I'm reminded of how the computer room gets awfully warm in here after a while, just from leaving my desktop running. Having a Q6600 and a GTX 480 on water-cooling and overclocked a fair bit tends to do that, and that's before I turn on my CECHA PS3 and let it dump even more heat into the air. Sometimes I even wonder if the air conditioning's on...

I still think the industry should be striving for proper binaural sound. It's not that consoles can't do it-they've got more than enough CPU power, and the PS3 in particular has had its Cell SPEs used for sound processing-but that the only developer who's even bothering to try it is DICE with BF3 and enhanced stereo mode, which may or may not work as well as you'd like. (Also, while I'm still wondering how they convincingly made those helicopter sound effects sound "above the head" even with a typical speaker mix and ESM off, I think I figured out part of it; they're cheating. It's a pre-recorded mix that pans in the same direction no matter how you turn around in-game.)

Chances are it would be a commonplace option by now if developers cared, particularly if it were an integrated option for FMOD, Wwise, etc. I'm sure that PC game developers in the old days didn't choose to implement DirectSound3D or OpenAL specifically to permit binaural sound over headphones; it was more of a convenient side effect that arose from the way the APIs worked.

BF3 hugely lives off pre-baked audio and well done recordings. The latter takes a good chunk of critical focus away from people when they evaluate it. The first thing you hear or read people say is: wow, that sound! It actually got several awards for best audio of the year.

We don't have much choice. Unless FMOD and Miles do something and properly develop binaural plugins or features we can only hope for game-specific binaural stuff directly from the Devs. It's not an easy task though with all the R&D, filters, numbers (different heads, different hrtf etc...) involved. Damn you Creative for letting your research rot.

DTS Headphone X is no magical newcomer, Sure, from what I read, it could be quite spectacular for movies and bomb everyone else away, let alone "get" us devices that have input for DTS-HD (which will include binaural info for DTS Headphone X)/PCM streams but games are a different thing. They're interactive, they change perspective, pan at free will, they're not hardcoded.

It needs engine support, for proper binaural audio. Access to every single sound information in the space. I don't see that happening. Does DATASAT have a Middleware prepared?

Maybe they only have tools that do something along BF3 with prebaking possibilites and something like 11.2 (don't know the exact stream numbers) output for the DTS Headphone X device. At least it (devices) gives us much better SQ than AC3 and if my speculation is true a more detailed space (> 7.1 to Headphones) than DHP and Co.

Its quite decent actually, good position cues, immersion. I use it daily with my PS3 and the HE-6 and its quite accurate.

Would definitely get the bass instead of the DSS if you can choose :)

See post nr. 15426 :)

Good to know. I can get a X41 base without power cord for $20. A power cord is $5 and an optical cable is $5. I can get a PX5 base for $30 with power cord, no optical. A DSS is $24 and comes with everything.

BF3 hugely lives off pre-baked audio and well done recordings. The latter takes a good chunk of critical focus away from people when they evaluate it. The first thing you hear or read people say is: wow, that sound! It actually got several awards for best audio of the year.

We don't have much choice. Unless FMOD and Miles do something and properly develop binaural plugins or features we can only hope for game-specific binaural stuff directly from the Devs. It's not an easy task though with all the R&D, filters, numbers (different heads, different hrtf etc...) involved. Damn you Creative for letting your research rot.

DTS Headphone X is no magical newcomer, Sure, from what I read, it could be quite spectacular for movies and bomb everyone else away, let alone "get" us devices that have input for DTS-HD (which will include binaural info for DTS Headphone X)/PCM streams but games are a different thing. They're interactive, they change perspective, pan at free will, they're not hardcoded.

It needs engine support, for proper binaural audio. Access to every single sound information in the space. I don't see that happening. Does DATASAT have a Middleware prepared?

Maybe they only have tools that do something along BF3 with prebaking possibilites and something like 11.2 (don't know the exact stream numbers) output for the DTS Headphone X device. At least it (devices) gives us much better SQ than AC3 and if my speculation is true a more detailed space (> 7.1 to Headphones) than DHP and Co.

Positional audio may be no better, but the sounds I've heard from the BF4 vids I've seen are pretty sweet.

If anyone's interested, here's the video of BF4 gameplay. Obviously this is just stereo output, but I think the sounds themselves are really good. The compression and impact of the vehicle and chopper guns and the new sound of the rpg are pretty sweet. I also like the lower frequency sound when the player is taking hits and explosions seem to have less of the annoying mid range crackle that they have in BF3.http://youtu.be/tqJfCPcu0As